I'm considering doing a giveaway right now to promote one of my sites. A free raffle kind of thing. I've seen a couple of things on this board that haven't gone so well - a free ipod for message board posts, etc. that didn't get nearly the participation that I personally thought they should have. I think one thing that will make a difference is the cost of the prize - a couple of thousand versus a couple of hundred. I think another thing that will help it along is promotion - PRWeb, announcements in forums, adwords ads, etc. I'm curious as to what experience people have in regards to these kinds of giveaways. Can they bring in traffic? Is the traffic good traffic (i.e. decent ad click throughs, etc.) Is it a solid way of promoting your site?
Also interested in this. I think the prize needs to be linked to your site's content in some way. Also you would probably want to target the visitors properly. But I'm guessing. Anyone have good info on this? Skinny
I did my first prize giveaway in early 1996 I believe (might have been late 95). Anyway, they can work if you do it right. There are four things that matter most: 1. Desirability 2. Price 3. Work 4. Relativity Let's look at number one: If you give away a free book called "An insiders look at the movie Dune", not many people will care verses giving away an Ipod Nano. Number Two: Price (or value) matters. If you are giving away something cheap, your target audience is poor people. No offense to anyone here, but you would not find someone like me (and probably many on this board) doing anything for a $25 prize. I have seen some people try to entice webmasters with links on their websites. Unless the website is (1) highly desirable and (2) either very expensive to get a link on or not for sale, the "prize" does not hold enough value to be worth any time. Your takers on this venue will be limited to certain segments--which could be fine if that's who you are targeting. I ran a webmaster website for a few years that gave away prizes all the time (range was $300-$1000). Typically, prizes will help facilitate action with your current members rather than generate new ones. Why? Credibility. Imagine this. A visitor comes to your website for the first time. They see you are giving away a prize. Does it matter? Not really. You have no built up credibility so there is not much thought that goes into the giveaway--its all about content at that point. This is why prizes help more with loyal users. If you want to try to change this pattern you need to give out some prizes and feature the winners on your website prominently so others can see that people are indeed winning--and more importantly--receiving their prize. This will not only factor in with new users, but will increase the loyalty factor with your base. Number 3: Work How much work is required to get the prize? It must be LESS than the value of the prize. Here are a couple examples: You are giving away a $25 prize randomly. To get an entry, you must make 50 posts on your forum. This is far too much work for this prize. Your only takers will most likely be the people who are already posting a good amount at your board. Therefore, this giveaway has no value for you---unless you are simply trying to boost loyalty. You are giving away an Ipod Nano, again randomly. To qualify, one simply needs to make two posts in one day. There is no limit so users can post twice per day and receive one entry each and every day. To guard against a flop, you state that the Ipod will be given away once X entries are received or X date, whichever is latest. This giveaway has a little more potential (provided your terms aren't wacky), because the work required for an entry is minimal (1-3 minutes of time). Number Four: Relativity Relativity is important, but it matters less if your prize value is high and work ratio is low. Cash is always relative. Still, if your website is about camera's, you will have the best opportunity to create action by offering a prize related to cameras, such as camera, memory card, accessory, and so on. If you offered a manicure set, probably not much would happen. I could go on, but this should give you a few things to think about.
One way, is to offer an opt-in give-a-way. In exchange for their e-mail address. That way you can stay in touch.
Then they opt-out once the giveaway is done and if you start marketing to them via email this way, you have little value as no loyalty was created. That's one way to play it if your prize is a trinket, but if you are serious and have a decent prize, there needs to be value and loyalty created for your expenditure.
I've seen it done many times, and talked with the guys who done it. Content is key, and everyone doesn't opt-out.
Of course not everyone opts-out. Making the opt-in as one of the conditions should be a priority. While not everyone opts-out, someone who does not read your email is the same thing. Again, loyalty is required. You will want your contest period to be long enough to build this loyalty with readers.
Okay, so if I wanted to give away a gadget like say an mp3 player, what should I make them do that isn't too hard but I still get some loyalty. Skinny
It really depends on your website, what the optimal purpose is and what your specific goals are. There's no clear cut answer to that until you figure those things out.
Okay I kinda want to get my blog more publicity. . .at the same time I'd like to have regular readers. (i.e. what was mentioned . . people stay for the contest then leave). Skinny
I made an announcement on my site today that we're going to have an announcement soon about a giveaway. We'll be giving away a wedding dress, in exchange for writing an article about wedding dresses. I'm hoping to gain some community involvement, inspire visitors to keep checking back as articles get published, and gain some content for my site. I'm working out the details with my partner, but I think that this idea has some real promise. I'll fill you guys in once I actually announce the giveaway and what the response I pick up is. Personally, i think it's a great prize, and it's not like 100,000 people are going to enter. If I get 1000, I'll be extremely lucky - and that means the odds of winning are going to be pretty darn good for the participants.
That does sound good. And hey an article for a wedding dress .. . that's nothing. Thats a good idea. You can narrow it down. See how come everyone else comes up with brilliant ideas? Skinny
One additional thing you can do for the article contest for wedding dress is to allow "Multiple" submissions from one person . This way people interested in writing articles will submit more than 1 article giving you more content . If you cannot reach 1000 people submitting 1 article each , let 400 people submit 3 each . Regards jeet
Right now I'm thinking max 2 submissions per person. I really don't want to shoot myself in the foot if I don't get that many participants though. So many decisions to make!
Why don't you ask for three referrer emails with an article ? Like submit an article using a form on website and the form also asks for three emails of their friends or family members who might want to check out the wedding gifts on your site . Don't mention , "Friends who would like to participate " . Most people won't give you "useful" emails then . Instead say "Three Friends who might be interested in wedding favour gifts " etc. You can then later email them "mentioning the reference" and an invite for the contest as well suggesting a few gifts they might want to get . Regards jeet